Nascar 2 Features?

I've been reading posts on this newsgroup for quite some time and since Nascar 2 demo is out I have a few questions that you fellow race fans can maybe help me with. I've played Nascar quite a bit. I have all of Papyrus' sims and will probably get the next ones. My question, is there any real big changes in Nascar 2? Seems to me that its no big break- through like ICR->ICR2. Ok, there is a spotter, improved graphics, better AI, fixed tracks, but is that really all? I'm not trying to knock it down, I just thought Papyrus would make it more revolutionary rather than an upgrade. They had two years to change it. If I missed any new improvements, please let me know. Right now I'm looking at spending $60 for an upgrade. Mind you, I might get the Rendition so that would be a big jump in change. Thanks for the info. Frank

Quoted text (16 lines)

>I've been reading posts on this newsgroup for quite >some time and since Nascar 2 demo is out I have a few >questions that you fellow race fans can maybe help me with. >I've played Nascar quite a bit. I have all of Papyrus' sims and >will probably get the next ones. My question, is there any real >big changes in Nascar 2? Seems to me that its no big break- >through like ICR->ICR2. Ok, there is a spotter, improved graphics, >better AI, fixed tracks, but is that really all? I'm not trying to >knock it down, I just thought Papyrus would make it more >revolutionary rather than an upgrade. They had two years to >change it. If I missed any new improvements, please let me know. >Right now I'm looking at spending $60 for an upgrade. Mind you, >I might get the Rendition so that would be a big jump in change. >Thanks for the info. >Frank

It's more of an evolutionary change than throwing out everything and starting over. The physics engine is the same, with the exception that they fixed a couple of niggling little bugs that make setups a lot more solid than in NASCAR1. The most significant improvements are in the graphics engine. You get a lot more detail with the same frame rate on a Pentium machine, just like the jump from ICR1 to ICR2. The graphics details are on the cars and the tracks are an order of magnitude better. According to Papyrus, at least 5 tracks have been redone completely: Darlington, Dover, Phoenix, Talladega and Watkins Glen. Someone else claims that 8 tracks have been redone, but I haven't heard this from Papyrus yet. The graphics at all the tracks is being revamped. They've done away with the old carsets. Instead, as I understand it, you can have any number of individual cars, and you can assign them to a collection. When you start a race, you select which collection you want to race against. The car detail is superb, and the cars that come with the game are an order of magnitude better than the ones that have shipped with the game in the past. They're also reworking the race logistics. When you run a championship season, you have to qualify well enough to make the field. If you fail to qualify, you can take a provisional, if you don't have a provisional, you miss the race. There's also 2-day qualifying, and as I understand it, qualifying is in real-time, so if you qualify early, someone else may beat you in qual later. I understand that there are improvements to the AI as well. Last, but probably most important, NASCAR2 is the basis for the NRL online racing league. I think this is where most of their effort has been focused over the last couple of years. You can argue about which sim has the better graphics engine or physics engine, etc. but online racing is where its at. There's nothing that will get your heart pumping faster than waiting for the green flag to drop in a field of 40 cars all driven by human opponents. Dave (davids) Sparks Late Night League http://www.sequoia-dev.com/Hawaii/latenite.html

(lots of stuff deleted) Except perhaps your next phone bill! ------------------------------------------------------------- Michael F. Hundley Santa Fe, New Mexico USA -------------------------------------------------------------

Quoted text (11 lines)

>>There's nothing that will get your heart pumping faster than waiting for >>the green flag to drop in a field of 40 cars all driven by human opponents. >Except perhaps your next phone bill! >------------------------------------------------------------- >Michael F. Hundley >Santa Fe, New Mexico USA >-------------------------------------------------------------

ROTFLMAO! Been there, done that... Dave (davids) Sparks Late Night League http://www.sequoia-dev.com/Hawaii/latenite.html